The Nets' big three, from the combination to the dissolution of only one year, in terms of playing time, the Nets originally sent Le Vere, Jarrett Allen and a number of draft picks, in exchange for only 16 games of experience. The disintegration of the Big Three Nets seems to be a matter of moments, and it seems to be because of a sentence from the beard. On Jan. 13, the Nets' Big Three teamed up to beat the No. 1 Bulls in the East, and then Harden joked in a post-game press conference: "I'm going to vaccinate Irving myself." This sentence seemed to completely anger Irving, and then the Nets welcomed Durant's injury, and the nine-game losing streak became the last straw that crushed the camel.
The Nets and Harden also parted peacefully, the Nets sent Harden to his favorite team, and they also stopped in time - to get the young All-Star Ben Simmons and two-piece championship puzzle Seth Curry and Drummond. The Nets suffered nine straight losses before the trade deadline, and harden's body language shows that Harden is extremely dissatisfied with the Nets, and in the final game, Harden's mind has drifted to Philadelphia. To be sure, if the Nets don't complete the trade before the trade deadline, then they will be empty in the offseason, so the Nets are also forced to be helpless, and they don't want to give the Big Three another chance. As part of the deal, Harden will be executing next season's player options, however, Harden reversed the trade after the deal was completed.
According to the 76ers reporter, Yesterday James Harden did not implement the 2022-2023 player option, Harden does not currently have full trust in the 76ers, Harden will spend half a season to consider. Harden's approach is undoubtedly to leave a back road for himself, but in fact, this violates the trade rules, if Harden does not execute the player option in the offseason, then he will be punished by the league, not only that, he will also be blacklisted by other teams for dishonesty. This summer, Harden has the right to jump out of the contract, and when Harden leaves Philadelphia, the 76ers will have nothing to gain.
Even before the deal, Simmons had announced that he would no longer play for the 76ers, but Simmons was still one of the 76ers' team assets. Philadelphia could only make the deal happen if Harden agreed to execute the player's options, otherwise the 76ers would not have agreed to exchange a large amount of assets for Harden's access to 30 games. At present, Embiid welcomes Harden's arrival, and Harden has also fulfilled his desire to join forces with the Emperor, no doubt one of the strongest duo in the league, but only if Harden can stay healthy. At present, Harden is once again plagued by hamstring strains, which has clouded his prospects for this season, and whether Harden, who has suffered hamstring strains again, will replicate the bad performance of last year's playoffs, no one can say for sure. In this deal, the 76ers are not stable and profitable, the 76ers team configuration is indeed more suitable for Harden's play, and if Harden cannot come up with a stable performance in the next game, Harden has no reason to push the responsibility on the team. Philadelphia fans are no more eccentric than New York fans.
Since 2017, Harden has partnered Paul, Westbrook and Durant, all of which now seem to have failed. At present, Harden is indeed a downwind player, and once the team is in trouble, Harden will choose a cooperative partner again. Joining the 76ers will be Harden's last chance to prove himself, and almost everyone imagines that Harden plus Embiid at the peak of his career will have a fairly competitive game. But Harden differs from Simmons in that Simmons' defensive ability guarantees his lower limit, and once Harden loses his offensive ability, his lower limit is really inferior to Simmons'.
In recent years, Harden's situation has been frequent, the locker room bomb label has begun to put on him, if the cooperation with the 76ers ends in failure, then other teams will definitely change their views on Harden, when Harden's attractiveness will be greatly reduced. It all depends on Harden's personal ability, if he can return to the peak offensive level, then he will still be a good food, if he still maintains the regular performance of the season, then this contract may be his last maximum salary contract.